134 On the Sena Rdjds of Bengal. [No. 3, 



ever, be altogether prevented, and the successors of Ballala somewhat 

 encouraged them, by raising the social status of those plebeans who 

 succeeded in securing the alliances of kulinas. "Wealthy maulikas large- 

 ly availed themselves of the opportunity which was thus given them 

 of rising in social rank, and the cupidity of our nobility has of late 

 encouraged them by a system of polygamy which has made kulinism 

 in Bengal, a positive nuisance to society. 



The son and successor of Ballala was Lakshmana Sena. The author 

 of the Bakerganj plate makes him erect altars and pillars of victory at 

 Benares, Allahabad, and Jagannath, but " it may reasonably be doubt- 

 ed," says Prinsep, " whether these monuments of his greatness ever 

 existed elsewhere than in the poet's imagination." His prime minis- 

 ter and Lord Chancellor (Dharmadhikara,) was Halayudha, son of 

 Dhananjaya, of the Vatsya race, a Brahmin of great learning and a 

 descendant of Bhattanarayana, the author of the Venisaiihara. His 

 eldest brother, Pashupati, wrote a treatise on the srdddha and other 

 ceremonials under the title of Pashupati Paddhati. His next brother 

 was a great scholar and professor of Smriti and the Mimansa ; he wrote 

 a treatise on the diurnal duties of Brahmins which still exists — 

 Ahnilca Paddhati. Halayudha himself is said to have written several 

 works on Smriti, of which the most important is the Brdhmana Sarva- 

 sva. In it, he describes his patron in the usual grandiloquent terms 

 of his time, but there is nothing in it to shew that he was other than a 

 prince of mediocre merit. He is said by the Mahomedan historians to 

 have greatly embellished the city of Gour, and called it after his own 

 name Lakhnouty or Lakshmana-vati • but the inscriptions are silent on 

 the subject, as they are as regards the popular belief of Ballala Sena's 

 having built the town of Gour. 



Lakshmana was followed successively by his two sons, Madhava Sena 

 and Kesava Sena. The Rajdvali brings in a Su or Sura Sena after 

 Kesava, and Mahomedan writers have a Noujib, a Narayan, a Lakh- 

 mana, and a Lakhmaniya to follow him ; but no monumental record 

 has yet been found to prove their ever having existed. An As'oka Sena 

 also occurs as one of the kings of Gour, but his position in the list is 

 nowhere defined. Of these therefore I have nothing to say. I shall 

 make an exception, however, in favour of the last of the series. The 

 Tabkdt i Ndsiri of Minhajuddin Jowzjani says that the last king of 



